Cubs hopeful ‘common sense’ results in no return to D.C. on Thursday

Cubs president Theo Epstein said he’s counting on the likelihood that ‘‘common sense will prevail’’ when it comes to Major League Baseball’s final call on whether the Cubs and Nationals must return Thursday to Washington with a hurricane bearing down on the region to make up the game that was rained out Sunday.

MLB? Common sense?

Enjoy the rain in Washington, boys.

If the ugly forecast for Thursday persists, MLB could decide to push the scheduled 3:05 p.m. makeup game to Oct. 1, when it would be played only if necessary to determine a playoff berth.

That’s what the Cubs wanted from the outset as they sat through more than three hours of rain Sunday before the postponement.

Epstein said the lines of communication with MLB remain open as all parties monitor the weather updates.

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Meanwhile, the Cubs are looking into whether they can push back the 1:20 p.m. start time for their home game Friday against the Reds should they be forced to make the one-game trip to Washington.

‘‘The things we can control internally, we’re taking a look at to see what we can do to make things more manageable,’’ Epstein said. ‘‘As far as the makeup game itself, that’s an MLB issue.’’

With at least a small amount of team lobbying.

‘‘Our voices certainly have been heard,’’ Epstein said. ‘‘But we don’t have any control.’’

The Cubs were already in the final series this week of a scheduled 23-games-in-23-days stretch, a season-worst grind that would turn into 30 consecutive days at a ballpark if they play Thursday.

‘‘Not even as a hoagie-maker, limousine driver or fence-installer did I ever go 30 days in a row,’’ manager Joe Maddon said.